December 14,  2006

Thanks to Public Citizen for hosting our annual holiday party, and to CEPR's friends and supporters for helping us celebrate!

December 8, 2006

Dean Baker spoke at a Center for American Progress lunch panel on The Economic and Policy Implications of the Housing Bubble (includes video and transcript). Excerpt from Dean's remarks: "I know everyone talks about housing -- the American dream -- and if you’re running for office you’d better say that, but...what we want to have is, on the one hand, people to have good, decent, safe, and secure housing. That can be done through rent. Secondly, we want people to be able to save for their retirement, for their kids’ education, or whatever it might be. Obviously one way to do that is through homeownership, but that’s not the only way to do that."

December 6, 2006

The Center for Economic and Policy Research is celebrating our 7th anniversary this month. Thanks to all our colleagues, friends and funders for supporting us through the years. For a list of our activities since September, check out the latest CEPR Update.

November 6, 2006

CEPR launched its newly designed website. New features include a growing library of radio and audio files (see Multimedia); an issue-by-issue list of our publications and commentaries (see Issues); and an RSS feed that enables subscribers to automatically receive our latest reports and op-eds. CEPR’s communications director Lynn Erskine led the hardworking web-transition team of Rozina Ali, Kathryn Bogel, Nihar Bhatt, and Rebecca Ray.

October 12, 2006

Supporting Families, our five-part briefing series held on Capitol Hill, came to a close yesterday in a session that was extremely informative and well-attended. At the briefing, Opportunities for Policymakers to Make a Difference, we were proud to host three influential speakers: Eileen Appelbaum, professor and director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University; Heidi Hartmann, director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research; and Kate Kahan, director of Work and Family Programs at the National Partnership for Women and Families. Each speaker addressed a different vital policy opportunity: adopting the Work and Family Bill of Rights; passing the Healthy Families Act; and expanding the Family Medical Leave Act. Following these presentations, staff from the eight co-sponsoring offices (Sens. Obama, Clinton, Dodd, and Kennedy; and Reps. DeLauro, Maloney, Miller and Woolsey) highlighted their current work and family legislative priorities. Pictures and audio files from the event are available on our website.

September 27, 2006

Mark Weisbrot presented on the 25-year growth failure in developing countries, the protections included in so-called “free trade” agreements, and the downward pressure on U.S. wages, among other topics, at a discussion entitled "Globalization and Free Trade: Who Wins/Loses?" at American University’s Kay Spiritual Life Center. AU School of International Service faculty member Steve Cohen also presented. Over 140 students, faculty members, and others attended the event.

September 22, 2006

The elimination of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) was named one of the most censored stories of 2006. Project Censored, a media research group based in Sonoma State University, produces a list of 25 news stories each year that are overlooked, under-reported, or self-censored in the mainstream media. In their story about the SIPP (number four on their list), they explain that the elimination of the survey will create a knowledge deficit on the efficacy of the government’s social programs. The article highlights that the efforts to save the SIPP have been primarily spearheaded by Heather Boushey and the rest of the staff at the CEPR. Visit our page for more information on the progress to Save the SIPP.

September 22, 2006

Doughnut Hole Day -- the day millions of senior citizens would fall into the financial "Doughnut Hole" designed into the Medicare Part D plan -- brought thousands of meetings and demonstrations across the country to protest the design of the plan. As part of the campaign to raise awareness of the issue, Dean Baker spoke at a community meeting in Champaign, IL. He explained the inefficiencies that were designed into Medicare Part D and how the Doughnut Hole (designed in order to save the government money), is an unnecessary burden to millions of senior citizens. To learn more about the subject, see: "Waste in the Medicare Drug Benefit: Why the Doughnut Hole is Unnecessary."

September 22, 2006

Washington, DC: In a lively discussion, Mark Weisbrot was invited by the Inter-American Foundation’s Ramón Daubón to present his paper titled Latin America: The End of An Era, followed by a discussion with retired Inter–American Development Bank and World Bank official Jacques Kozub.  The event was hosted by the Esquel Group, which is directed by Mr. Daubón and held at the IFES office and was well-attended by some 50 representatives of several NGOs, think tanks and government officials from USAID, the State Department and Inter-American Foundation. Foreign government and press were also present.

September 11 - 13, 2006

CEPR economist John Schmitt spoke in Krakow, Poland, last week at a conference on the future of Europe, organized by the European Parliament and the Polish Parliament. John presented an extension of his CEPR paper "Is the U.S. a Good Model for Reducing Social Exclusion in Europe?", co-authored with CEPR research assistant Ben Zipperer. Other speakers at the conference included the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, and academics and politicians from across Europe.

September 8, 2006

For our fourth Supporting Families briefing, CEPR was proud to host Ann Crittenden, award-winning journalist and author of If You've Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything and The Price of Motherhood. Ms. Crittenden debunked the myth that since motherhood is a choice, employers should have no obligation to accommodate employees with children. Instead, she offered policy alternatives to address the needs of working parents. She suggested that policymakers who work to fill these needs could earn the support of millions of voting parents, regardless of political party. Materials and an mp3 recording of the briefing can be found here.

Ann Crittenden talks to Congressional staff about policies that support working parents.

July 31 - August 1, 2006

 
July 27, 2006

Heather Boushey spoke to a packed room at the New America Foundation on Life, Work and Debt for Generations X and Y." (Video and audio)

July 21, 2006

Work and family balance issues are important to American families. For our third Supporting Families briefing, Phil Sparks, Co-Founder and Vice President, Communications Consortium Media Center, and Beth Shulman, author of The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans, discussed how advocates and policymakers can frame these issues to appeal to voters across party lines. Materials and an mp3 recording of the briefing can be found here.

July 20, 2006

Dean gave a talk on his new book, The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Get Rich and Stay Richer, at Demos in New York City. About 50 people attended the talk and gave positive feedback on Dean’s ideas.

July 19, 2006

In a welcome break from the DC heat, CEPR Economist Heather Boushey and Domestic Outreach Assistant Liz Chimienti skipped town for two very productive days in Minnesota. In three meetings organized by our Minnesota state partners, Heather met with over a dozen researchers and advocates to introduce them to the Bridging the Gaps project and get invaluable feedback on our initial findings.

On Thursday morning, the Minnesota Policy Research & Analysis Network invited Heather to present updated findings from her paper "Are Mothers Opting Out? Debunking the Myth" to a receptive audience of over 30 people (including State Senator Ellen Anderson). Diane Cushman, Director, Office on the Economic Status of Women, MN Legislature, and Steve Hine, Research Director, Labor Market Information Office, MN Department of Employment and Economic Development, responded to her findings. The fabulous and thought-provoking discussion was recorded by a reporter from NPR, so Minnesotans, don't touch that dial!

July 11, 2006

Last night, Dean spoke at a packed SALSA workshop (Social Action and Leadership School for Activists, a program of the Institute for Policy Studies). The event, Housing Bubbles and DC Development discussed the basics of housing bubbles – what they are and specifically how they are affecting Washington, DC. David Haiman from ONE DC discussed how gentrification is affecting residents in the Shaw neighborhood, and what can be done about the changes. The audience generated many important questions, and Dean’s comments were well-received.

In other housing-related news, Dean spoke at the 17th annual National Fair Housing Alliance conference earlier in the day. The conference featured speakers such as Sen. Paul Sarbanes (MD); Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Theodore Shaw, Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; James Carr, Senior Vice President of the Fannie Mae Foundation; and Sharon Arkin, Senior Partner at Arkin and Glovsky. Dean spoke on the panel, Unequal Gains in the U.S. Economy: The Evolving Role of African-Americans and Latinos. The panel was moderated by Kelvin Boston, of Boston Media LLC and Moneywise (PBS). He discussed wage inequality and the shift in income distribution from wages to profits over the last quarter century.

June 30, 2006

Mark Weisbrot presented at a Congressional briefing organized by Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and sponsored by Representatives Duncan Hunter and Tim Ryan. At the briefing, which examined the projected gains from the completion of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, Mark pointed to findings from economists at the World Bank that showed the gains would be largely negligible. Mark was joined by fellow panelists Yvette Pena Lopes, Legislative Representative for the Teamsters, Dave Frengel of Manufacturers for Fair Trade, and Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. Over thirty staffers and journalists attended the briefing. This meeting took place at a critical time: as the WTO convened an “emergency” mini-ministerial in a “moment-of-truth” effort to salvage negotiations that failed in December. The Doha Round negotiations have stalled during the last two ministerial meetings – in Cancún and Hong Kong - on several major issues. 

June 26, 2006

CEPR’s second briefing in the work and family series was held this afternoon. The event, Struggling to Care: Is the market failing working families? was again given to a standing-room-only crowd, and featured Bob Drago, professor of Labor Studies and Women’s Studies, Pennsylvania State University, and co-founder, Take Care Net; and Danielle Ewen, director, Child Care and Early Education Policy at the Center for Law and Social Policy. Speakers’ presentations are available online.

June 16, 2006

CEPR hosted its first work and family briefing this afternoon. The event, Finding the Time: Challenges facing working families online is the first in a series of five briefings that will explore the challenges facing working families in the United States. Heather Boushey spoke at the opening event, along with Ellen Bravo, former director of 9to5 and National Association of Working Women, and current coordinator of the Multi-States Working Families Consortium. The series is generously funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and aims to develop policy solutions to help working families. The full schedule, along with presentations and materials from this briefing are available.

June 8, 2006

Heather Boushey participated in a roundtable discussion at the Brookings Institution on the Census Bureau’s plan to eliminate the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The roundtable began with David Johnson (Chief, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, Census Bureau) explaining the Census’ plan to replace the SIPP with a new survey: the Dynamics of Economic Well-Being (DEWB). Heather, along with Don Oellerich, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Dept. of Health and Human Services; and Howard Iams, Office of Policy, Social Security Administration, provided critiqued response to the plan. Heather pointed out that while the SIPP may have its problems (with nonreponse rates, etc.), by eliminating it as early as September 2006, researchers and social scientists will lost up to six years of valuable data on the participation rates of government social welfare programs that is necessary to measure the effectiveness of these vital programs. The event provided an essential forum for researchers and Census staffers to debate the plan. Click here to read more about the background of the proposed SIPP elimination and for CEPR’s efforts to save the SIPP.

June 7, 2006

This afternoon, Heather Boushey spoke at forum organized by the National Consumers League: “The High Cost of Cheap Goods: Measuring the Impact of Big Box Retailing on Workers, Consumers, and Communities.” Her panel, “Impact on Consumers and Workers: How Bottom Line Economics Play Fast and Loose with Standards and Protections” was moderated by Beth Myers, Executive Director of STITCH. Heather spoke on labor issues associated with “Big Box Retailing;”  Kathleen Russell, Consultant, Stop Hurting Our Kids, discussed product safety; and Penny Arhar, Business Agent, Teamsters Local 311 and former Costco and Drug Mart worker spoke about the worker’s perspective.

June 6, 2006

Mark Weisbrot presented on a panel entitled Globalization: Understanding the Debate for the World Affairs Journalism Fellowships Fellowship Orientation, sponsored by the International Center for Journalists. In his presentation, Mark discussed the importance of accuracy in reporting on economic issues and talked about some common misperceptions and biases in media reports on the global economy. He was joined by fellow panelist Joseph Quinlan, Chief Marketing Strategist and Managing Director for Wealth and Investment Management at Bank of America. Toby McIntosh, Managing Editor of the Daily Report for Executives, moderated the panel.

May 26, 2006

Many of you already know, but to those who haven’t noticed the announcement on our website: Dean Baker’s newest book has been released! The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer is available online as a free e-book (in PDF and HTML versions) and in paperback for $6.91 (the cost of production). The book has been getting lots of note in the blogosphere as well as on the radio waves. Click here to read Salon.com’s review.

May 12, 2006

Mark Weisbrot was a featured speaker at a conference in Chicago co-hosted by the Global Studies Association and the DePaul University International Studies Program. The conference, Alternative Globalizations, focused on options for globalization that extend beyond the traditional neoliberal model. Other participants included Mehren Lauredee, DePaul University; Edward Kolodziej, Director Center of Global Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana; Ron Baiman, University of Illinois, Chicago; and Yiching Wu, University of Chicago.

May 11, 2006

CEPR co-sponsored a seminar, The Growth and Development Challenge, with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The event served as a follow-up to a dialogue held in New York the previous day (see post from May 10). As a featured speaker, Mark Weisbrot dicussed the sharp slowdown in economic growth in the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries. Other speakers included Prabhat Patnaik, professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, Victor Tokman, former Economic Advisor to the President of Chile, and Danny Leipziger, Vice President and Head of Network, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, World Bank. National Public Radio’s Kathy Schalch moderated. The German Historical Institute hosted the event, which attracted people from various institutions, think-tanks, embassies, and NGOs, despite rainy weather. We will have video and audio of the presentations online soon.

May 10, 2006

Mark Weisbrot spoke at the First Annual Dialogue, The Economic Development Challenge and the UN, sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in cooperation with the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS) and the United Nations- Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA). The event, which was held at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, New York, examined important issues in international development, including macroeconomic and industrialization policies, trade, international financial arrangements, institutional and structural transformation, financial markets, governance, and poverty and inequality. Prof. James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin and Jomo K.S., Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development, UN- DESA, made keynote presentations. A number of economists from developing countries presented on some of the development policy issues facing their countries.

May 3, 2006

Heather Boushey met with Dutch and German government officials about work-family policies here in the United States. Among the officials were Marije Laffeber (International Secretary of the Second Vice-Chair executive committee) and Patrick de Vries (First Secretary (Political) for the Royal Netherlands Embassy).

April 26, 2006

This week, John Schmitt is in Denmark at the 2006 LoWER Annual Conference. LoWER (the European Low-wage Employment Research Network), the Center for Corporate Performance, and the Aarhus School of Business are jointly hosting this conference on the topic of Insecure Perspectives of the Low Skilled.  Participants are presenting current research from U.S. and European countries in order to discuss recent results in the field. John will be presenting a forthcoming paper, co-written with Heather Boushey, on the motherhood pay penalty and the effects of paid parental leave. It provides evidence that offering paid parental leave helps to offset the motherhood pay penalty.

April 24, 2006

Dean Baker spoke at a panel discussion this morning at the University of Maryland School of Medicine: Improving Access to Medicines in the Developing World. Also on the panel were Dr. Allyn Taylor, a professor at the UMD School of Medicine in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, and Ken Gustavsen, manager of Global Product Donations for Merck & Co., Inc.  During the discussion, Dean pointed out that the only reason drugs are expensive is because of patent monopolies: "Drugs are cheap, patents are expensive." He also emphasized that because of patent monopolies, most research funding is wasted on copycat research. In addition, they also provide incentives to falsify results and conceal negative research findings. For these reasons, it is necessary to adopt a better system for financing prescription drug research.

April 21, 2006

Heather Boushey was a featured participant in the UNC Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity Conference in Chapel Hill, NC. The conference, Challenging the Two Americas: New Policies to Fight Poverty, was attended by over 200 researchers and provided serious discussion on the state of poverty in America. Heather spoke on a panel, Creating Opportunities to Work, with Arne Kalleberg, professor for the UNC Department of Sociology, and Harry Holzer, professor of public policy and associate dean at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. You can read an interesting review of the conference here.

Heather also participated in the unveiling of a new book: Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences, for which she co-wrote a chapter with Christian Weller; "What the Numbers Mean." The book has been getting good reviews, such as this one in the Boston Globe.

April 20, 2006

Mark Weisbrot spoke on Latin American debt and growth linkages as part of the workshop discussion One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Latin American HIPC Countries after Debt Cancellation, sponsored by Eurodad and Oxfam Bolivia. Other speakers included Gail Hurley of Eurodad, Javier Gómez of CEDLA (Bolivia), Katy Murillo of Fundación Jubileo (Bolivia), Mauricio Díaz, FOSDEH (Honduras), and Adolfo Acevedo and Violeta Delgado of Coordinadora Civil (Nicaragua). Thomas Kruse of Oxfam Bolivia moderated the event and the Economic Policy Institute and Global Policy Network hosted it.  The event included a productive discussion about the challenges for debt relief in Latin America.

April 8, 2006

Mark Weisbrot traveled to Massachusetts to speak at, and participate in, a conference, In the Name of Democracy: US Electoral Intervention in the Americas. The conference brought together a broad range of academics and NGOs, including Jennifer McCoy of the Carter Center, Daniel Wilkerson of Human Rights Watch, Gilbert Joseph, Director of Latin American and Iberian Studies at Yale; Greg Grandin from New York University; Atilio Boron of CLASCO and the University of Buenos Aires; author Naomi Klein, and representatives of the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute.

There were a number of lively and informative discussions of the role and impact of U.S.-funded “democracy promotion” efforts in the Americas.

Mark’s panel included Marta Lagos, director of Latinobarómetro; and Anìbal Pérez-Liñan, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Over 100 people attended the conference.

April 7, 2006

CEPR co-hosted a day-long conference on development, trade, and immigration with the Madrid-based think-tank Fundación Sistema (affiliated with the governing Partido Socialista Obrero Español) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). CEPR co-directors Mark Weisbrot and Dean Baker spoke on “The Growth Slowdown in Developing Countries Over the Past 25 Years” and “Paths to Development: The Relative Impact of Trade Liberalization, Intellectual Property Protections, and Effective Industrial Policy,” respectively.

Other speakers included Branko Milanovic of the World Bank, Vicente Navarro of Johns Hopkins University, José Félix Tezanos of Fundación Sistema, Thea Lee of the AFL-CIO, Christina DeConcini of the National Immigration Forum, Rafael Simancas of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, and Will Martin of the World Bank. Heather Boushey of  CEPR, Antonio Romero of the Fundación de las Ciudades, and Carlos Westendorp, the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, moderated the panels on growth and development, immigration, and trade, respectively.

CEPR economists and staff engaged in further productive discussion with the Spanish delegation over dinner the evening before the conference, and at a dinner and reception hosted by Ambassador Westendorp at the Embassy of Spain following the conference.

Presentations and papers from the conference are available on our website. Audio and video recordings will soon be available as well.

April 6, 2006

At a press breakfast this morning, Dean and David Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office, exchanged views on the long-term deficit problem. Mr. Walker discussed the unsustainability of the current budget path and stressed the need for long-term accounting and budget controls as well as a need for a national debate over priorities. In response, Dean emphasized the unsustainable growth in health care spending, both government and private.

Citing the Congressional Budget Office, Dean argued that fixing our broken health care system would make the future path for government spending manageable. Alternatively, if the health care system is not fixed, health will impose an enormous economic burden, regardless of whether the government chooses to pay for it or not. Mr. Walker agreed that health care spending was the most important factor affecting long-term deficit projections. See Dean's papers: Medicare Choice Plus, the Answer to the Long-Term Deficit Problem and The Forty-Four Trillion Dollar Deficit Scare for further information on the topic.

April 5, 2006

CEPR held their first Economist Office Hours. The low-key event was a big success, with attendees stopping by from all parts of Washington (and a caller from Washington State!). Refreshments were provided, and economists Dean Baker and John Schmitt fielded questions on issues ranging from the trade deficit to the French labor law protests. This event will be held again on the first Wednesday in May.

In the morning, Dean Baker visited the Hill to debate David Berson, Vice President and chief economist at Fannie Mae, about the future of the housing market at the invitation of the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute.

While Mr. Berson did not believe that there was a bubble in the nation's housing bubble, he did agree that housing in several markets is likely over-valued and could decline. He also noted the large increase in investor purchased homes over the last few years, as well as the surge in non-conventional pricing. Dean pointed out the unprecedented run-up in home sale prices, which cannot be attributed to any fundamentals on the supply or demand side. He also pointed out that there has been no substantial increase in rents during this period. If the run-up in home sale prices were explained by fundamentals in the housing market, it should affect the rental and sale market in  roughly the same way.

March 30, 2006

Mark Weisbrot participated in a panel discussion of the book, Capitalism's Achilles Heel:  Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market Systemby Raymond Baker, Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy. The panel, which was sponsored by the World Bank, was convened at Bank headquarters and also included Branko Milanovic, Lead Economist for the World Bank research group, in addition to the author’s presentation. The discussion focused on the damage to developing countries caused by illegal and illicit international money flows. A webcast of this event is available online.

March 22, 2006

Heather Boushey spoke on income inequality this afternoon at the Center for American Progress.  The panel discussion, Is the Rising Tide Lifting All Boats?, focused on the US middle class as compared with its relative position a generation ago. Richard Alm of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute, and Jeff Madrick of The New School (NY) were other members of the panel.

In her wealth of research, Heather has repeatedly found increasing income inequality in the United States. Factors such as a stagnant minimum wage, high debt burdens, and low social support all weigh in against working families. Read CAP's event announcement and download Heather's slide presentation (available on CAP's website) for more information.

March 17, 2006

Mark Weisbrot spoke to a group of students from Georgetown University who are working on stopping the genocide in Darfur.

March 14, 2006

It's Sunshine Week -- a national initiative to improve the transparency of government records and data. Senior economist Heather Boushey took part in the initiative by speaking at a Heritage Foundation panel discussion, "What if the Answers Don't Add Up: Transparency and Government Data." She highlighted the importance of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which is slated for elimination in the President's FY07 budget.

The other panelists at the event were Mark Tapscott (not pictured), director of the Heritage's Center for Media and Public Policy and Kirk Johnson and David Mulhausen, both senior policy analysts at Heritage's Center for Data Analysis.

In other news for the day, Mark Weisbrot and Claudio Loser, visiting senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, and former Western Hemisphere Director at the International Monetary Fund spoke at a press breakfast discussion entitled, Latin America’s Electoral Leftward Shift: The Importance of Economic Growth at the Old Ebbitt Grill. Economic and finance policy reporters from the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Reuters, and the Associated Press attended the event. (Read the transcript from the event.)

March 11, 2006

Mark Weisbrot presented at a workshop in Crystal City, VA on the failure of the “Washington Consensus” economic reforms, international debt, and trade as part of the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace and Justice Conference. Over 80 people attended the workshop from a variety of faith-based organizations advocating for international debt relief, fair trade, and against U.S. military intervention, among other issues.

March 9, 2006

The Los Angeles Times featured an op-ed by CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot, The Failure of Hugo Bashing. He writes: "Chavez's opposition to the 'Washington consensus' on economic policy has fallen on sympathetic ears in a region that ­ since 1980 ­ has suffered its worst long-term economic failure in a century. Over the last 25 years, income per person in Latin America has grown by a meager 10%, according to the IMF. This compares with 82% from 1960 to 1980, before most of Washington's economic reforms were adopted. And Venezuela's government has kept its promise to share the oil wealth with the poor...."

March 8, 2006

CEPR Senior Economist Heather Boushey was invited to participate in a Wall Street Journal Online Feature debating the ramifications of persistent inequality in the US with Russell Roberts of George Mason University. Heather argues "Over the past 30 years, we have seen inequality rise along all three dimensions -- wages, incomes and wealth -- and it shows no signs of slowing. As a result, income and wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a relatively small, elite group."

March 6, 2006

CEPR has been busy working to save the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP), an extremely valuable source of data for social science researchers. The president’s FY07 budget calls for elimination of the Census survey, effective September 2006. To see what we've been doing to keep this data source, visit the “Save the SIPP” page on the ceprDATA website. On Wednesday, CEPR sent a letter to Congress from over 400 researchers opposing the survey's elimination. CEPR is currently collecting signatures for a similar sign-on letter from organizations.

March 4, 2006

Mark Weisbrot presented on the current state of U.S.-Latin American relations and the 25-year economic failure in Latin America as part of the opening panel for the first National Solidarity Conference on Venezuela at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Other speakers on the panel included Antonio Gonzales, President of the Southwest Voter Registration Project and Bill Fletcher, President, TransAfrica Forum. Dan Hellinger, Chair of the Political Science Department at Webster University, moderated the panel. Mark also presented a more detailed workshop on the Latin American economies to an overflow crowd later in the day.

March 3, 2006

Heather Boushey met with Netherland's Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Aart Jan de Geus, and other Dutch officials to discuss her work on women’s labor force participation and childcare. They will be using CEPR's analysis to help create more family-friendly government policies in the Netherlands. Also in attendance were Maarten Anthony Ruijs, Secretary General for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Peter Stein, Head of Section Labor and Care, and Elke Merks-Schaapveld, First Secretary for Economic Affairs.

February 22, 2006

Economist Heather Boushey and policy analyst Liz Chimienti escaped DC’s cold weather by meeting in Houston with our Texas partners in CEPR’s Bridging the Gaps project. This innovative program is investigating the "effective coverage" of social policy – by examining how many families eligible for social assistance are actually receiving benefits. While in Texas, Heather and Liz will be presenting initial findings on effective coverage and gathering feedback from our Texas partners for the next phases of research.

February 21, 2006

Today, CEPR and the Institute for America's Future jointly released a report, The Excess Cost of the Medicare Drug Benefit. The report, written by Dean Baker, finds that provisions in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act designed to benefit private insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry will cost taxpayers over $800 billion over the next decade. You can check out the press release by the Institute for America's Future here.

February 17, 2006

CEPR made the front page of the Detroit News! "Auto Cuts Slam Blacks" (Feb. 16, 2006) highlighted our recent report, "The Decline in African-American Representation in Unions and Auto Manufacturing, 1979-2004," and its effect on local auto manufacturing employees. The report, by John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer, coincided with Ford's announcement of layoffs and has picked up a lot of media coverage. John has appeared on several radio shows, including WGNU in St. Louis and WBAI in New York.

In other news, John Schmitt is guest lecturing at Johns Hopkins University for a class in the Masters Degree in Public Health this afternoon. He will be talking about economic inequality in the United States and the economic and political forces contributing to it.

February 16 - 19, 2006

Mark Weisbrot traveled to La Paz, Bolivia, to present CEPR’s analysis to hundreds of government officials, NGO’s, business people, and other members of civil society. Other presenters from the United States included Jeff Vogt, Senior Associate for Rights and Development for the Washington Office on Latin America, Lori Wallach, Executive Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, and Steve Suppan, Director of Research for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.  Mark also met with other members of the government and NGOs. You can see CEPR's briefing paper on Bolivia's economic situation here.

February 16, 2006

The President's FY2007 budget calls for the elimination the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). CEPR is circulating a sign-on letter to researchers, particularly SIPP users, who are concerned about access to quality government microdata. If you are a social science researcher and would like to see the letter to consider signing it, please click here. Tentative closing for the sign-on letter is March 1, 2006. For more information see: http://www.ceprdata.org/savesipp/savesipp.html

February 10, 2006

Mark Weisbrot was back on Capitol Hill this afternoon to speak at a Congressional staff meeting sponsored by Congressman Raul Grijalva. The event, Venezuela, the United States, and the Americas: Fact and Fiction, was well attended, and staffers from over 20 Members of Congress (from both sides of the aisle) were present.

February 3, 2006

Heather Boushey spoke today at the Business and Professional Women's 2006 Policy & Action Conference on the subject, How Research Impacts Policy. Having several examples to choose from, she discussed CEPR's work on Social Security, the minimum wage, and John Schmitt and Dean Baker's new paper on the Current Population Survey. Joining Heather on the panel were Sherryn Craig (American Cancer Society), Samir Luther (Human Rights Campaign Foundation), and Ana Unruh Cohen (Center for American Progress). Heather also presented a poster at the conference on her paper "Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth," which was very well received.

Mark Weisbrot traveled to Capitol Hill this afternoon to participate in the Georgetown Public Policy Institute's 12th annual public policy conference, Breaking Through the Noise of Democracy: Uniting Policy and Politics to Strike the Right Chord for Social Good. Mark spoke on a panel entitled, "How Can Uniting Local and Global Interests Advance Pro-poor Growth?" to a standing-room-only audience. Other panelists included Vijaya Ramachandran (assistant professor for public policy, Georgetown University), Robert Holzmann (Director for Social Protection, World Bank), Anwar Ibrahim (former Finance Minister of Malaysia), and Andrew S. Natsios (immediate past Director, USAID).

January 27, 2006

In a small ceremony involving beer and brownies, CEPR's union and management this afternoon signed the much-anticipated 2006-2007 union contract. CEPR employees have been proud members of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local #70, AFL-CIO, since 2003. (Co-director Dean Baker was himself a founding member of Local 70 in the late 1990s.)

January 25 - 29, 2006

Mark Weisbrot presented on the economic reforms of the last 25 years in Latin America, and the diminished influence of the IMF, at the 6th Polycentric World Social Forum – Americas and the 2nd Americas Social Forum. Over one hundred people attended this workshop.

January 24, 2006

More union news: CEPR released a briefing paper that details some of the effects of the shrinking auto manufacturing industry: "The Decline in African-American Representation in Unions and Auto Manufacturing, 1979-2004." The brief finds that layoffs in the auto industry will disproportionately hurt African Americans. You can find the accompanying press release here.

January 20, 2006

CEPR produced a Union Byte, an analysis of the annual "Union Members" report, which is released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report details union membership over the course of the previous year. John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer, co-authors of the Byte, point out some amazing news: For the first time ever, manufacturing workers are no more likely to be represented by a union than the average U.S. worker. This observation challenges the conventional perception that manufacturing workers are more likely to be members of a union than any other employment sector.

January 18, 2006

CEPR economist Dean Baker participated in a health care briefing organized by representative John Conyers in an event called "The New Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program: Problems & Solutions." Dean spoke on a panel with other experts on the new Medicare program, including Roger Hickey (Campaign for America's Future), Dr. Elena Rios (National Hispanic Medical Association), Gwynn Gillenwater (American Association for People with Disabilities), Edward King (National Senior Citizens Law Center), and Carolyn Rachel (DC Department of Health). Dean presented findings from his paper, The Savings from an Efficient Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, to a standing-room only audience in the Rayburn House Office Building.

To learn more about the new Medicare program, you can read the paper or check out Dean's op-ed, published in the Sacramento Bee on November 25, 2005: Bush Drug Plan an Expensive, Complicated Turkey.

January 6 - 8, 2006

Dean Baker and Heather Boushey travel north to Boston to participate in the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations. You can check out the conference here: Program Announcement

Heather will be presenting three different papers, and Dean will be a respondent at two panels.

December 20, 2005

International policy analyst Dan Beeton just got back from Hong Kong, where he followed the WTO talks that compromised the development round (or Doha round). The text that emerged from Hong Kong seems to be the bare minimum needed to keep negotiations from total collapse, although provisions on services and tariff cuts, among other issues, could prove damaging to developing countries if implemented. To find out more about CEPR's analysis of the talks, check out our press release: Costs of WTO 'Development Round' Could Outweigh Benefits for Developing Countries. 

December 15, 2005

Heather spoke at the Capitol building at a book briefing on the changing face of workforce development, and the implications for working moms. 

December 14, 2005

Its a busy day for CEPR!  This morning, we participated in a press conference on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005, a bill introduced to the House by Steny Hoyer and to the Senate by Senator Kennedy.  Heather Boushey spoke about the impact that the higher minimum wage could have for millions of low wage families.

In addition, tonight is CEPR's holiday party: all friends of CEPR are welcome to attend the event located at Public Citizen's office at 1600 20th St., NW, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.

December 12, 2005

International Policy Analyst Dan Beeton is in Hong Kong for the Doha Development round of the WTO meetings. The meetings are being closely monitored by many international groups, and over 10,000 people are expected to travel to the city for the talks.